Festival Watch

Two years is a long time in pop music. In 2005 when Michael Eavis last welcomed the muddy masses, Arctic Monkeys had just signed their first record deal, fellow 2007 headliners the Killers thought they didn't have enough hits to merit top billing and fans were beginning to realise that MySpace was a rather good place to check out new bands.

This year, the mud was just as treacly and treacherous as ever. When everyone finally left last Monday hundreds couldn't be bothered to yank their tents out of the swamp. Thankfully the music was uplifting enough to get us out of them during the weekend.

Glastonbury is still proudly called a 'rock' festival but for many, listening to indie heroes isn't where the action is. On Friday night at the John Peel stage, Hot Chip re-energised the audience like a shot of Red Bull and Bjork provided the festival's most memorable costume, looking as if she was auditioning as a pantomime dame for Kevin Spacey, who had been spotted backstage. On Saturday afternoon CSS frontwoman Lovefoxx almost trumped the Icelandic singer with her rainbow leotard as the Brazilian funk rockers led the Other Stage crowd through a much-needed workout. A couple of hours later in the Dance Village Mark Ronson's uptempo cover versions made us sweat even harder. Earlier, although Amy Winehouse had fallen off the wagon and looked like toppling off the stage, she slurred her way through an enjoyable set on the Pyramid stage backed by her nimble vocalists.

If this year's Glastonbury lacked a truly great rock performance, Arcade Fire's terrace-chant choruses were obvious crowd-pleasers; their songs had epic scale and they are second only to the Polyphonic Spree when it comes to filling the stage. Recently anointed 'the world's coolest rock band' by critics on both sides of the Atlantic, they didn't have to convert too many new fans on Friday night, although my companion was unconvinced: 'They can't be that cool, they're from Canada,' he moaned.